


Stars Get In Your Eyes

by hellotweetygirl



Category: SHINee
Genre: Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Growing Up Together, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-05
Updated: 2017-03-05
Packaged: 2018-09-28 09:07:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10084091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellotweetygirl/pseuds/hellotweetygirl
Summary: Taemin is only a small boy when they meet so it’s no wonder that stars form in his eyes that he never really can blink out and cause to fall.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This is the second prompt I received from @shinyaqua in our post-SBB summer writing challenge. This is my first stand-alone ontae story! I hope you all enjoy! 
> 
>  
> 
> _Prompt: “The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.” –Rumi_

Taemin is only a small boy when they meet so it’s no wonder that stars form in his eyes that he never really can blink out and cause to fall. He wishes he could. He knows he’s been star struck from the beginning and he wishes that there was something good enough in him to cause a wish like the one he holds in his heart to come true- but he knows that only happens in fairy tales.

And fairy tales aren’t the same thing as real life.

And that stars don’t grant wishes.

Still, Jinki is a prince in his eyes and his whole world revolves around shining brightly for him. Taemin’s gravity has been set from the moment Jinki’s first laugh and smile pulls him in and he never has tried to break away.

~~

Taemin has been watching Jinki from across the practice room for a while now. He mostly hangs with a group of the older boys in their free moments and down times but something Taemin has realized from the beginning is that just how the sun holds court to an audience of the heavenly bodies Jinki is acutely aware of everything that happens around him. 

When Jinki trips and falls one day in the practice room, pulling one of his increasingly famous body gags it’s just Taemin’s luck that a laugh bubbles to his lips before he can stop it. He cringes in wild embarrassment and tries to hide behind the group of his own friends that he’s meant to be chatting with but it’s _no freaking use._ Jinki pinpoints him with ease and the knowing smile that spreads across his face takes Taemin’s breath away and he is frozen staring back at him with the blankest look that he’s sure anyone has seen on him.

All he can do is blink dumbly when Jinki waves cutely at him before turning back to his own group. 

It’s only when Jongin shoves his shoulder that he wakens to reality and comes down from his spinning high. “Do you know him?” Jongin whispers, having witnessed the whole exchange.

“N-no,” Taemin stammers, “He’s just a hyung.”

Inside he dies a little for the lie he’s just told his best friend, but he doesn’t think he can tell him about the way his chest still feels tight after Jinki smiled at him either.

~~

Time passes and Taemin knows he is stronger and sharper in his dancing. The teachers praise him and he is pleased with himself at how well he can follow what they direct. What he can’t follow however is the instruction he receives in strengthening his singing skills.

Which is why he’s stolen away to the top of the roof. He wants to get away from the scolding and harsh words that have been flung at him in his latest disastrous session. If he climbs high enough perhaps he won’t hear them anymore and he can shake the reverberation of the words from his head.

Taemin finds a corner to hide behind and crouches down. He closes his eyes and discovers that the negative thoughts have chased him even here and he wonders why they won’t leave him be.

When a hand touches his head he jumps a mile out of his skin.

His spirit and his body have a difficult time reconnecting as his mind registers that the hand belongs to a very concerned looking Lee Jinki and his whole being goes on full alert.

Jinki crouches down next to him leaning his elbows on his knees and crossing his arms. “You’re Taemin right?”

“Yeah.” His eyes blink at light speed.

Taemin doesn’t know until Jinki swipes a thumb across his cheeks that he’s been crying.

Jinki tells him that day that if the teachers don’t like his singing the sky will. The heavens never discriminate when it comes to voices.

Jinki sings sweet and loud against the backdrop of pink and golden sunshine as it drops from the sky and with one eye on this magical hyung and one eye on the sky Taemin pulses out his bliss and joins him.

~~

The group of younger trainees press in at him from the sides and everyone is talking at once about the new list of promotions that are set to hit the message board any time now.

Taemin already knows what the list is going to say, he met with the managers yesterday.

Too nervous to add to the press of bodies and tempers Taemin drops back a few paces from the group. He needs to breathe before he has to explain to his friends that he isn’t just being promoted to a higher class- he is going to debut.

His stomach churns with the anticipation.

He feels like he’s in a dream.

They meet a couple of times a week now, him and Jinki. Always on the rooftop where the air is clear and the sky gives scope for imagination, never in the basement practice rooms where his formal instruction clouds his lungs and the clatter of other trainees practicing distracts him. Jinki has been kind and patient with him, never telling him he couldn’t or he was wrong; always framing his guidance in the form of a question for Taemin to consider or a challenge to mimic something Jinki showed him.

His confidence had blossomed and the teachers had stopped scolding him. 

Those moments on the rooftop were his charmed moments of the week and he had been waiting for them to turn back into pumpkins after finding out Jinki was going to be a part of the next boy band debuting. 

Never in his wildest dreams did he think the pumpkins could stay transformed. What is happening to him shouldn’t be possible. He can’t believe his luck. It’s as if his fairy godmother has waved away every impediment to his growing closeness to Jinki.

A manager comes and smooths a single sheet to the board tacking it in place and walks away. The noise of the group hits its peak as their eyes run from name to name- and all eyes turn to him. Some of them are gaping in incredulity, a few in disdain, his own friends are bouncing around him in a mixture of joy and awe and are peppering him with questions that he doesn’t know how to answer.

Someone comes up behind him and throws their arm around his shoulders and the little group around him goes still in awe. He looks to see who it is and his heart clenches as it always does, strongly and embarrassingly.

“I’m Jinki, I’m going to be Taemin’s leader.” Jinki blinds everyone with his megawatt smile and Taemin gazes up at him with wide eyes full of stardust. 

~~

Taemin sleeps at the bottom of Jinki’s bed for a week after the surgery.

It’s not that he thinks Jinki is going anywhere but there is part of him that is afraid of him disappearing all the same.

Bad Things always happen in stories when people least suspect it so Taemin is determined to suspect everything- and everyone- much to the annoyance of the other members who have been trying to share the care of their beloved leader.

Jinki is a revered prince and Taemin his loyal aid. All others are inconsequential.

Nothing is good enough for Jinki unless it’s done by Taemin’s own hand.

For the first few days Jinki is groggy enough to go along with this tyranny but as he begins to gain his wits and his strength the atmosphere begins to change. Jinki is once again aware of each sphere as it revolves around him and Taemin knows he is wobbling out of place and causing disruptions. He knows Jinki sees it, but he can’t stop.

Jinki’s eyes follow him around the room as Taemin fusses and has his own way in all things. Taemin pretends not to notice what Jinki’s eyes are telling him. Jinki tries to jot him little notes and make jokes to break the tension that radiates from Taemin but his eyes remain hard and don’t yield to the gentle cajoling.

It’s only in the night Taemin loses his fight and bluster. He curls into himself and pulls the blanket around his shoulders and closes his eyes tightly. The light in his eyes is too much to bear covering up and with no other outlet he can’t help it when it comes streaming down his cheeks.

When Jinki reaches down and drags him up the bed and next to him Taemin is surprised but doesn’t resist. He needs to feel Jinki close to him, solid and real, more than he needs to govern in the darkness. 

He doesn’t want to reveal his weakness so he holds very still next to Jinki and whispers softly.

“Hyung, you’re supposed to be sleeping. Go back to sleep.”

Jinki’s words can’t reach him but his hands can. They slide up his shoulders and around his face cupping his cheeks. Jinki touches their foreheads together and rubs the pads of his thumbs across the streaks of wetness at his fingertips.

The gentleness in Jinki’s touch is unbearable to his fragile doubting heart.

The touch comforts and Taemin only cries all the more.

When he wakes up he is in Jinki’s arms and the sunlight of his smile is beaming down on him.

Taemin thinks that it’s a little piece of heaven.

~~

Taemin grips tightly to the balcony railing and watches the darkened sky with attention as the memories of the past flood him. Tonight something beautiful and magical has happened and he’s a little sad that it has passed so quickly.

The celestial show is over. The streaks of light and trails of stardust from the meteors have all but faded from the sky. The members he has awoken sleepily find their beds once more but he stays at the railing hoping for an encore. He wants to soak up every little bit of the starry night that he can. 

The noise from behind him tells him that someone is still up and he glances over his shoulder curiously to find Jinki setting a pair of steaming mugs on the small patio table beside the lone chair.

“I thought we could use some warming up. It’s kind of cold out here after so long.”

Jinki perches on the edge of the chair and watches Taemin watching the sky. Taemin can feel the familiar eyes on him and even after all this time he still has a tiny flutter in his heart knowing he has Jinki’s attention.

“Sorry for keeping you out here for so long. You should go back to bed too.” Jinki hums in response but doesn’t move. Taemin goes back to soaking up stardust so he doesn’t have to look at the sun.

When Jinki stands he comes closer to Taemin instead of going away like Taemin expects.

“Hey Taem,” Jinki speaks softly, his arms winding around Taemin’s middle and his chin settling comfortably onto his shoulder. “I know…I know I haven’t said it before but you know don’t you?”

Taemin looks at him over his shoulder and their breaths mingle and his nose brushes against Jinki’s cheek as he looks wonderingly at him. Their eyes meet and Taemin can’t help the tiny bits of stardust he showers Jinki in as his gaze falls on him and he blinks.

Jinki recognizes the look and his smile is fond. He says the words that are hanging between them like shimmering bits of happiness. “You’re the only one I’ll ever love.”

Taemin’s heart has been collecting bits of sunshine and stardust for years now, hiding them away in the deepest part of him. Sometimes they have leaked out in the blink of an eye in unguarded moments but mostly he has tried to hold his wishes close to his heart. No one lives a fairy tale life after all.

He had accepted being the star that gave its light without question, without reserve, and trailed stardust.

In this moment however he realizes that Jinki has quietly been collecting his trailing stardust and storing it as his treasure.

Long ago Taemin wished for the stars to fall from his eyes but the only stars falling tonight are the ones from the sky and Taemin is more than ok with that.

Maybe stars do grant wishes after all. 

But maybe for some people…they don’t need to.


End file.
